Diagnostic and Predictive Values of Inflammatory Factors in Pathology and Survival of Patients Undergoing Total...

Inflammation and tumorigenesis are related. We conducted this study to evaluate whether inflammatory factors (IFs) have a diagnostic value for pathology and a predictive value for survival and recurrence in bladder cancer patients undergoing total cystectomy.

The patients who were diagnosed with bladder cancer and underwent total cystectomy in our center from 2014 to 2020 were enrolled. The values of neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (NLR), derived neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio (dNLR), platelet to lymphocyte ratio (PLR), lymphocyte to monocyte ratio (LMR), and systemic immune-inflammation index (SII) were calculated by blood routine test results before operation. The AUC of ROC was calculated to judge the diagnostic value of the IFs in pathology and their corresponding cut-off values. For overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival (RFS), the above IFs were grouped according to the cut-off value. The differences between different groups were analyzed by the Kaplan-Meier curves, and the predictive value of these IFs was determined by the Cox proportional hazards regression model.

A total of 79 patients were enrolled. All IFs had no diagnostic value for the pathological grade, tumor T stage, and systemic metastasis. Only NLR (AUC = 0.706, cut-off value = 3.12, sensitivity = 75.00%, specificity = 70.00%, P = 0.014), dNLR (AUC = 0.700, cut-off value = 2.49, sensitivity = 66.67%, specificity = 76.67%, P = 0.015), and SII (AUC = 0.704, cut-off value = 463.56, sensitivity = 100.00%, specificity = 40.00%, P = 0.004) had a diagnostic value for lymph node metastasis. The median follow-up time was 31 months, and there was no significant difference in OS between the two groups for all IFs. For RFS, Kaplan-Meier suggested PLR might be predictive when the cut-off value was 266.70 (P = 0.044), but the subsequent Cox proportional hazards regression analysis showed that all IFs had no predictive value for OS and RFS.

We found that in patients undergoing total cystectomy preoperative NLR, dNLR and SII had a diagnostic value for lymph node metastasis, while all these five IFs had no predictive value for OS and RFS. However, this conclusion needs to be further verified by large-scale studies in the future.